NO MORE HOSPITAL!!! (September 29, 2015)

Buenas días a todos ustedes!

This week I had my latest checkup on my knee and the doctor told me I`m done with physical therapy and my brace!!  Finally I`m out of my portable jail cell!  I feel so free!!  I still have to be very careful, because I`m still very delicate.  However overall I`m doing really well!  I can now also work a little bit longer (5-6 hours a day) so we`re taking advantage of our new found working hours.  And we`re seeing good results with that.  I`m very glad to have had the help of the Lord through all of this.  

Also this last week we had the opportunity to work with the stake to have a night of the missionary work and show Meet the Mormons, one of my new favorite movies because it`s so cool!!  They did this night to help the missionaries and the members unite and work together better throughout all of the stake.  It really helped a lot.  We`ve already got a fair few Family Home Evenings planned with members and investigators throughout this next week.  

Before I leave you all I`d like to invite everyone who reads this to the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints this next weekend.  It will be broadcast throughout all of the world and it can be found on lds.org as well.  It is Saturday and Sunday and it is an opportunity to hear from a prophet, apostles, and other authorities called of God.  They will say the words of which He commands them and it will be able to answer any question that you have about His Plan and Gospel for us. 

I love you all and hope you all can attend these meetings.

Con amor,

Elder Forsgren

Earthquake and Day of Celebration! (September 21, 2015)

Hello to Everyone,

So we`ve just had an Earthquake in Chile which was really funny actually.  We were in the street and all of a sudden everything started to move.  We thought it was just a tremble (there's a difference between Earthquake and tremble) but come to find out it was actually pretty serious.  For us it didn`t do anything really.  It was a nuisance more than anything else, but it sure was fun!  We didn`t even fall, we just got a little dizzy all of a sudden.  However Chile doesn`t stop moving...  it keeps trembling a 2-3 times a day.  We`ve determined that it has Parkinson's (the country that is)  

Two days after said earthquake happened we had the big party of 18 de septiembre, the most festive day of the year in Chile.  We literally had a day of celebrating with soccer (didn`t play), basketball (didn`t play), volleyball (didn`t play), tug of war (didn`t play), musical chairs, ping pong, and other fun things.  And FOOD!!!!  Lots of empanadas, lots of meat, lots of sweets, lots of food!!  And Chilean dancing (didn`t do either).  I really loved it though.  I haven`t had so much fun in a long time!!   And we`ll be continuing celebrating this next week too.

On top of those big events the week was also a very spiritual week with a mission conference that we had with on of the Area 70 and we got to hear some very inspired messages.  I really loved it.  

I hope y`all aren`t too shaken up, we certainly are here, keep up the good spirits, that`s what we`re doing!

Con amor,

Elder Forsgren

Month 13! (September 14, 2015)

¡Hola mis amiguitos!

So this week was really an amazing week.  Saturday we did a huge service project with all the stakes of Chile!! Every Stake had it`s own project, but everyone did something, which was really amazing!!  We worked on painting houses in one road in a small town about an hour outside of Santiago and it was really an amazing time!  I wasn`t much use due to my knee, however I felt so good to be helping someone and to be doing it with the church.  I know that`s what I`m doing everyday, but it was a new way to be doing it.  It was a beautiful day also because the sun wasn`t too hot, but the air was fresh and we all were in summery clothes as well.  

This week was fairly long because we lost a lot more hours than we are used to loosing even with my need of only 4 hours of work....  We had too much Physical Therapy especially in the afternoon...  However we managed to work around that and visit a family, that was in need of a visit, in the morning in stead of in the afternoon.  It was a little weird for them but it worked out.  The other problem was we had to be in the house at 6pm Friday because Chile gets really dangerous on the 11 of September because of a governmental problem years ago.  So we couldn`t work much that day either.  

All in all this week has been a spiritual refresher for me even with a few troubles here and there I felt really good at the end of it.  I love you all, and keep your heads up!
Con amor,

Elder Forsgren

I've Run Out of Subject Names... (September 7, 2015)

A Grand Hello to Everyone Reading This,

This week was a little long, with a few breaks in working due to badly planned therapy trips, and a last minute performance of the Mission Choir that killed my knee for the rest of the day.  While that was a little annoying, in all we managed to help a lot of people, and we managed to come up with more ideas to work and find new investigators.  That`s where we fault, investigators of the church.  However we don`t let that get our hopes down.  We`re very happy to see the progress that there is, doesn`t matter how much of it there is.  We got to see one brother in the church reactivate himself and has accepted a new calling as a ward missionary.  We are very glad to see his joy in the church again.  

So this week (actually yesterday) I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants 127 where it talks about the registration of proxy baptisms and I got to thinking a lot with that.  I thought "why do we need to registrate the baptisms for the dead? They`re dead" (a little crude way of putting it...) And the answer that I thought would be obvious wasn`t what I thought of.  Looking back I would normally have thought that it has something to do with not doing it for the same person twice, which makes sense, however what I thought of was a quote from Sister Nelson (wife of the President of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles) when they visited our mission in November.  She said "They don`t like to be called dead" and even though I found it funny of her to say at the time, it impressed me a lot.  I got to thinking with that, and I thought hard.  I thought that they still are beings, even if they are only beings in spirit, doesn`t mean that they aren`t living Spirits.  We don`t think about the Holy Ghost as something that isn`t living, but it`s a spirit.  So these Beings should have the registros as well.  They should be recorded as members of the Church of Jesus Christ as well.  I thought even more about what Sister Nelson said and I remembered how much she said that they are begging that we do this ordinance for them.  Without baptism, in it`s correct form, you can`t be save, and really this is a blessing for them and for us.  It brings us closer to them and them closer to us as Malachias says in his ultimate verse.  I know this to be true, I can`t wait to put it into practice again as I go to the temple the last week of this change.  

I love you all,

Elder Forsgren

First Stake Conference in the Mission (August 31, 2015)

Hello to Everyone,

This week was very good, and very long at the same time.  I`ve gone to the doctors again, and they said I`m healing really well, so that helps!  I should be without the brace soon.  We`re teaching a lot, but also searching new investigators.  It was really cool this week because we could meet the goal of the mission for 30 lessons or more in one week even with half our hours, and that all is thanks to the wards efforts to do the activities needed.  

This week was also a Stake Conference, and it was such a great experience!  We enjoyed it thoroughly.  We had the entire stake in one building that was giant!  We listened to the Stake Leaders, the Mission President, and an area 70 from Argentina.  The messages all we based around the Sabbath Day.  It is a focus of the Lord`s in this day an age, and it is one that many people have problems living.  I`ve seen a lot of people who struggle to live the law from God "Keep the Sabbath Day Holy" and really it is difficult, however it is important.  One inspired youth talked about how that Law is inclusive of Saturday and how we prepare for the Sabbath.  We should do everything possible Saturday to prepare us to have the best experience possible and feel the most peace possible Sunday.  The Area 70 then said he loved that she said that and wanted to push it a little further and say we should spend all the week preparing us for Sunday.  So I took this advice and did everything I could to prepare myself the night before.  Saturday night I ironed my shirt, shined my shoes, and prepared my bag.  The next day I only had to shower, shave, and put on my clothes and I could spend all the extra time I had reading the Holy Scriptures, and I felt so much peace throughout the rest of the day.  I testify to you all the truth of this commandment, and invite you all to do what you feel is necessary to make the Sabbath a day Holy unto the Lord only, and not unto anyone else.

I love you all and wish you all a good week.

Les amo,

Elder Forsgren

Change number 9/16!‏ (August 24, 2015)

Hey all!

So this week is the start of the 9th change of my mission and I will be staying in Corona Sueca with Elder Tulipano until October it looks like!  It should be a good time, however we are both working on keeping up the good spirits due to our knees and our other fun problems.  We did a lot of paper work recently so that Elder Tulipano can be in Chile legally and that took all of one day, we also had physical therapy for him and X rays for him and we`re just sick of things other than the mission.

However this last week we have had a big focus on Courage.  It was the theme of our most recent Ward Conference (yesterday) and it has gotten me thinking a lot.  I`ve asked myself what is courage in my own words? I haven`t found an exact answer, however it has a lot to do with faith.  We act based on our faith that we know that the Lord will do His part if we go out of our way to do something that we wouldn`t be able to do without His divine help.  We need to work to have courage in all our life.  I would like to invite all people to take courage and act upon the promise that the Book of Mormon gives us.  Read it, ponder it`s message and what it tells you, and ask if it is the truth.  For if you do the Lord will answer you.  This I know by experience.  You will find an answer to your question.  And if it isn`t right, nothing will happen, you will just have a stronger testimony in the fact that the Lord answers prayers, if it is right, it is the most important message in the world.  

I want you all to know that it is true, and that it contains the fullness of the Gospel.  I know this, and I want you all to reap the benefits of that.  I love you all.

Con amor,

Elder Forsgren

1 year!! and 3 baptisms!!‏ (August 17, 2015)

Hey all!

So I just completed ONE YEAR in the mission!!  It`s been a very short year actually!!  It shocks me just how fast everything has gone by!  In such a little amount of time I have seen a lot of personal spiritual progress and a lot of spiritual progress of the wards I have been in.  I have had 6 companions, 2 wards, 3 sectors, and 6 baptisms and 4 people reactivated.  

This week we also had the baptism of the Reyes family!  It was such an amazing baptism I loved that I could be their for it.  But not only that, Scarlett (the daughter of 8 years) asked if I could perform the ordinance and she was my first ever!!  Sadly I dropped her, because I wasn`t sure how it worked, but in the end what is important is that she got baptized.  

The bishop later talked a lot about how God calls unprepared people to callings of importance (such as Bishop) and trains them in that calling and through that calling.  He focused on one example that made me think a little bit.  He said to Brother Reyes "It is possible that in 1 year I`m sitting on the opposite side of your desk in the bishop`s office" which is really impressive and true.  The Lord calls the weak to strengthen and humble them.  Look and me and my companion.  Together we only have 2 good knees (of 4), we know we can`t do anything without the strength and help of the Lord.  However we are finding it, and seeing our own strength grow every day.

This week has opened my eyes a little bit more as to how I need to work and how I can receive the blessings of the Lord.  I`m so glad to be here in the mission and I know that this Gospel is true.  I hope every one of you can come to that understanding as well.

Les amo muchísimo,

Elder Forsgren